‘It’ll help if you tell us anyway then we can rule it out.’ Gina felt her muscles tensing as she wondered what he was about to say.
‘About nine this evening, the dog began to bark. Cally ran downstairs and said she’d had a nightmare. She’d only been asleep about twenty minutes. She said she heard someone in the back garden and then she thought there was a ghost in her wardrobe. I shouldn’t have let her watchCasper the Friendly Ghost.’
‘Did you check the garden?’
‘Yes. There was no one there except a fox. I think that was what Milo was barking at. I then checked Cally’s wardrobe and the rest of the house for this ghost and obviously we found nothing. I put her back to bed, read her a story and left her night light on. I checked on her about fifteen minutes later and she was fast asleep.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Five.’
‘Are you sure there was no one in the garden?’
‘Not that I could see. Do you think someone was outside, looking in? Has this got something to do with Annabel and Grant?’
‘We’re asking everything at the moment. We don’t know where Annabel is and we need to speak to Grant. When he comes home, could you ask him to call us?’ Gina pulled a card from her pocket and placed it on the table.
‘Yes, of course. Would it be okay if I call Annabel’s father? I think Cally would rather be with her grandad and I have things I need to do tomorrow.’
‘Yes, could I take his number too?’
‘She left me his number in case of an emergency.’ He noted it down on another slip of paper and passed it to Wyre.
‘We’d like to check the back garden if that’s okay.’
He stood and reached for the bunch of keys that he’d used to open the front door and he led them through the kitchen. After testing five keys, he managed to find the one that opened the back door. ‘There.’ He pushed it open. ‘She keeps a torch on the side.’ He grabbed it and passed it to Gina.
Gina and Wyre stepped out into the damp night. A chilly breeze caught the back of her neck as she headed down the tiled path. She flashed the torch towards the back of the garden. A small hedge separated what belonged to the Braddocks from the field behind it. A detached garage stood at the end of a rubble path that led from the side of the house. She walked over and shone the torch on the padlock. It was firmly in place. She shone it on the ground, trying to look for footprints or any evidence of disturbance but she couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was nothing more than a five-year-old imagining that she saw Casper the ghost. ‘Do you have the key for the padlock?’
Evan stared at the bunch of keys before looking for one that would fit in the padlock. ‘I can’t see that any of these would fit.’ Gina took the bunch and looked through the keys, trying a few of the smaller ones. None of them fitted. She handed them back to the man who wandered back into the kitchen.
‘I can’t see anything out here, guv.’ Wyre stepped onto the grass.
Gina glanced back and a glint of something caught her eye. As she spotted the child looking out, the curtain dropped. ‘Why don’t we ask Cally what she saw?’
‘That might help. Shall I call her grandad?’
Gina nodded. ‘Yes, he’ll need to be with Cally while we speak to her and he can take over from the neighbour.’ She glanced up again and the little girl peered through the crack in the curtain and waved. Gina waved back, a sadness washing through her. That little girl’s mother was missing and Gina knew she would do anything to reunite them.
SIX
Jacob paced under the strip light, listening to the sound of beds being wheeled, groans of pain, shouts of drunkenness and the beeping of machines. A doctor passed. ‘Hey, give me an update on Jennifer? Sorry, Jennifer Bailey.’ Sweat beads gathered at his hairline and his knees weakened to the point that they buckled slightly. He grabbed a plastic chair and sat.
‘And you’re—’
‘Her partner. We live together. I spoke to another doctor a while back. I wondered what was happening next. She got brought in, it was an emergency and they took her into that room for some sort of emergency treatment because of a bleed to the brain.’ His heart began to pound again, just like it had when he first came in. The words induced coma kept ringing through his head. He knew what that meant. It meant things were bad. He couldn’t breathe. If anything happened to Jennifer, he didn’t know what he’d do. He needed her more than he’d ever needed anyone.
‘Just take a slow deep breath.’ The doctor kneeled in front of him.
‘I can’t.’
‘You can. Breathe with me. In through your nose, and out.’
‘I can’t lose her. Please find out what’s happening.’
The doctor peered over his glasses. ‘I’ll go and have a word with the team who are looking after her and I’ll find out what’s happening.’
‘Thank you.’ His breathing had calmed a little. He wiped his brow with his sleeve. Why was it so hot? He pulled his coat from his back, almost tearing at the sleeves in frustration, then he threw it onto the chair next to him. He’d never loved anyone so much in his whole life. There had been girlfriends, in fact there had been many. Each relationship had barely lasted a few months, some only weeks. No one had understood the pressures of his job and what it meant to him; that was until he’d met Jennifer. She had her own ambitions and pressures in the forensics field. They were meant to be. It was like she’d waved a magic wand over him, completed him. Soon after he realised that he’d never felt like that before. It had to be love. He glanced up at the door and knew that Jennifer’s life was in their hands and he waited.
